Women in Prison Fact Sheet
United States
As of June 2008, 207,700 women were in state or federal prisons or local jails, just under 10% of the total U.S. prison and jail population (more than 2.3 million)
Nearly 115,800 women were in state or federal prisons alone, more than 7% of the total U.S.Read More

Imprisonment and Families Fact Sheet
Nationally, more than 8.3 million children have parents under correctional supervision (either in prison, jail, on probation or parole).
More than 1.7 million children have a parent in state or federal prison.
Nearly 62% of women in state prisons and 51% of men in state prisons are parents of children under 18.Read More

Survivors of Abuse in Prison Fact Sheet
In prison
A 1999 study found that 82% of women at New York’s Bedford Hills Correctional Facility had a childhood history of severe physical and/or sexual abuse and that more than 90% had suffered physical or sexual violence in their lifetimes.
This study also found that 75% of the women had experienced severe physical violence by an intimate partner during adulthood.Read More

Enacted in 1973, when Nelson Rockefeller was Governor of New York State, the Rockefeller Drug Laws require harsh prison terms for the possession or sale of relatively small amounts of drugs. The penalties apply without regard to the circumstances of the offense or the individual's character or background, so whether the person is a first-time or repeat offender is irrelevant.Read More

Transgender Issues and the Criminal Justice System
What is “transgender”?
The term “transgender” describes people who understand or express their gender differently than what society expects based on the gender they were assigned at birth. This term includes people who change from one gender to another, people who express different gender characteristics, and people whose gender expression cannot be clearly defined as “masculine” or “feminine.”
What is “transition”?Read More